Skirmishers on the other hand had far less risk in terms of backlash.

Their mana vein wasn't siphoning mana from their heart, it was connected to a mana cube implanted within the side of their beamer.

Not to mention they were meant to ease the mana in, sort of like directing the flow of a body of water rather than just throwing a bucket full of water at something.

Due to the close proximity of the mana cube and the Tallion rod, they also didn't have to expend as much effort as linemen as their vein was shorter.

The downside to all this of course was the immense lack of penetrative power they gained as a result of having to keep the vein stable.

This meant they were only ever good at skirmishes, hence the name skirmisher.

In any actual battles, there would be bannermen upholding a barrier preventing weak attacks from passing through.

Even the Busken muskets of the linemen which could reduce solid stone to rubble, barely managed to pass through the barrier.

In a battle without barriers obviously the skirmishers would win, they could fire for twelve seconds straight after all, while the lineman's volley would be over in an instant.

So what was their purpose? Bertrand remembered asking one of his instructors.

No battles were done without bannermen of course, therefore no proper engagements required skirmishers.

His instructor had replied, scouting and assassination.

Skirmishers were supposed to keep their fellow soldiers flanks clear so as to prevent any bannermen being picked off before they could get the barrier up.

Likewise they were also meant to attempt to engage enemy linemen without their barrier to protect them.

A single skirmisher could eradicate an entire company if they managed to ambush them successfully.

A few sweeps of their beamer would result in horrific wounds and shattered bones.

In a way skirmishers were almost like mages.

They typically served more as a deterrent rather than actually seeing any real combat and the times they did get involved in a large scale battle tended to be against other skirmishers, just like how mages only really fought other mages.

Seer actually having mana must be incredible.

Everyone had mana of course, it's just most people including him only had it in small amounts.

The best they could do was create pure force spells using specialised wands, like muskets or beamers.

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Anything else was beyond them.

Even the most basic of spells was an impossibility.

At least for now.

Bertrand had high hopes that in the future new technologies would be developed allowing even people like him to cast spells.

In a way they had already taken their first steps towards this wondrous new future.

These first steps came in the form of mana cubes and rifles. Previously even the most basic of force spells would be impossible for anyone to caste and even if someone could, unless they had the mana pool of a mage they would have to spend a dozen minutes recovering from the expenditure.

Now though they could cast spells, basic as they were and thanks to Tallion rods they didn’t run out of mana so there was no collapsing from withdrawal for them.

They did still have to repair their mana veins though. which put a stop to any continuous spell flinging.

Bertrand didn’t quite know how they would get around that issue but he still felt confident that their scientists would find a way.

“Aye, what's that over there.” One of the guards yelled out from one of the completed watchtowers.

Bertrand glanced over at the observant man before looking over to where he was pointing.

He couldnt spot anything at first though.

But after close to a minute he saw it and so did his fellow wall guards.

It was a small squad of zombies charging them, likely with an adaptor or two in the crowd. A rather basic but effective tactic they had employed six times so far.

When the horde got closer the adaptors would reveal themselves and spit out their needle like teeth at the defenders.

Only two men had died from this, but it was still rather unnerving.

It somehow made the savage creatures seem more civilised.

As though they were once more the humans they had previously been, intelligently engaging in ranged combat.

Bertrand just stood there, remaining at his post as a few dozen linemen scurried up the ladders and took position atop the walkway.

The walls had now been completely reinforced on all sides, hurriedly constructed watchtowers having also been added to them to further bolster their defensive prowess.

A walkway had also been added to the wall, it was poorly made and prone to collapsing in some areas every now and then but it allowed them to actually defend the town in a meaningful way now.

Taking aim, the linemen waited until the horde was roughly two hundred yards away before they fired.

Diminishing the scrappy horde that had been rushing the walls.

Two stragglers survived the initial volley but they were picked off by the soldiers atop the watchtowers.

Not Bertrand though, he was on top of a watchtower too but his duty was to wipe out any zombies that crossed over the wall.

As although mana cubes had yet to become a rarity, it was still better to be conservative with them.

That way if disaster struck there wouldn't be a scarcity of ammunition.

They might also have to use the mana cubes as the artillery’s power supply.

Bertrand didn’t exactly know a lot about cannons or mortars, other than they were valuable targets to sabotage, so he didn’t actually know how much power was needed to fire them.

But if their firepower was any indicator to go by then they would need a lot of mana cubes to run.

They won wars after all.

Napoleon’s soldiers may have outnumbered the loyalists three to one and had far superior training but it was the artillery that was truly a legions backbone.

Mages simply were too difficult to kill without it, sure you could overwhelm them with sheer musket fire but why do that when a simple cannon was all you needed to ensure that no trace of them graced the earth ever again?